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For Kansas City I`d probably select Crossroads honestly since it has more variety IIRC. It's always hard to select one. Same with most cities (Philly included), but I'd go with the area that has the highest concentration of venues, bars, nightlife and all that.
I would say that in Philadelphia, that honor is now shared by Old City and Manayunk.
Something you might find interesting here, though — a connection between my forever and adopted hometowns:
The Crossroads and Old City are also home to a slew of commercial art galleries. In the case of the Crossroads, the city enacted property tax breaks for buildings housing art galleries (and commercial tax breaks for the galleries themselves) in order to keep the galleries from being taxed out of the district.
Both districts have a tradition known as "First Friday." On the first Friday of each month, the art galleries throw their doors open to the general public with special receptions for their current exhibits. The gallery crawls have become happenings of their own, attracting all sorts of ancillary activities and events.
Both the Crossroads and the Old City "First Friday" events began in the same year: 1981.
Does your city have a gallery district, and if so, do the galleries there host a First Friday-style event?
Shifting gears: You worked in municipal politics, right? If so, then you are probably familiar with the Baltimore-based developer of entertainment districts, The Cordish Companies. This firm has made a specialty of building and operating entertainment districts in the middle of large cities, usually financed by some combination of city tax breaks, government loans and borrowing against future tax revenues generated by the business (a practice known as "tax increment financing"; the theory here is that the additional tax revenues generated by the businesses in the district will cover the cost of the city-sponsored financing in the years to come).
Usually, the Cordish entertainment centers have the word "Live!" in their names, like Fourth Street Live! in Louisville, Xfinity Live! in Philadelphia (one of the few such centers that's an enclosed building and not part of the urban fabric), FOX Sports Midwest Live! in St. Louis' Ballpark Village and several Live! casinos, the latest of which will open soon in Philadelphia.
The central forum of the Power & Light District is an open courtyard surrounded by bars, restaurants and music venues called Kansas City Live!
You might want to read what R. Crosby Kemper III, scion of one branch of Kansas City's most prominent banking family and chair of the city's public library board, had to say about the development in this article I wrote about it for Next City in 2015. Besides giving good quote, he made a very valid point about these manufactured districts vs. more organic ones like the Crossroads. And as the article notes, the city got taken for a ride on the deal:
(Several urban-advocacy and social-equity groups have either linked to or reproduced this article on their own sites, and it was a pick of the month on Longreads.com the month it ran.)
I would say that in Philadelphia, that honor is now shared by Old City and Manayunk.
Something you might find interesting here, though — a connection between my forever and adopted hometowns:
The Crossroads and Old City are also home to a slew of commercial art galleries. In the case of the Crossroads, the city enacted property tax breaks for buildings housing art galleries (and commercial tax breaks for the galleries themselves) in order to keep the galleries from being taxed out of the district.
Both districts have a tradition known as "First Friday." On the first Friday of each month, the art galleries throw their doors open to the general public with special receptions for their current exhibits. The gallery crawls have become happenings of their own, attracting all sorts of ancillary activities and events.
Both the Crossroads and the Old City "First Friday" events began in the same year: 1981.
Does your city have a gallery district, and if so, do the galleries there host a First Friday-style event?
Shifting gears: You worked in municipal politics, right? If so, then you are probably familiar with the Baltimore-based developer of entertainment districts, The Cordish Companies. This firm has made a specialty of building and operating entertainment districts in the middle of large cities, usually financed by some combination of city tax breaks, government loans and borrowing against future tax revenues generated by the business (a practice known as "tax increment financing"; the theory here is that the additional tax revenues generated by the businesses in the district will cover the cost of the city-sponsored financing in the years to come).
Usually, the Cordish entertainment centers have the word "Live!" in their names, like Fourth Street Live! in Louisville, Xfinity Live! in Philadelphia (one of the few such centers that's an enclosed building and not part of the urban fabric), FOX Sports Midwest Live! in St. Louis' Ballpark Village and several Live! casinos, the latest of which will open soon in Philadelphia.
The central forum of the Power & Light District is an open courtyard surrounded by bars, restaurants and music venues called Kansas City Live!
You might want to read what R. Crosby Kemper III, scion of one branch of Kansas City's most prominent banking family and chair of the city's public library board, had to say about the development in this article I wrote about it for Next City in 2015. Besides giving good quote, he made a very valid point about these manufactured districts vs. more organic ones like the Crossroads. And as the article notes, the city got taken for a ride on the deal:
(Several urban-advocacy and social-equity groups have either linked to or reproduced this article on their own sites, and it was a pick of the month on Longreads.com the month it ran.)
This is beautiful! Yes, I still do work in municipal politics (i'm behind the scenes on everything though) and it's funny you brought up the TIF theory, I've been pitching an idea for a new arts district in the city (I cannot say where or what, as it is confidential but it is on the table) but it would be using this strategy or the city buying up buildings to keep rents low, encourage local businesses to open up and also gives more assets and money for the city, or a special enterprise zone but this will lead to drastic rent increases. You also mention organic vs manufactured as well, which is another challenge since we want it to be organic while also stimulating the economy of that particular neighbourhood.
Again thank you so much for that and the link for the article, I always appreciate reading up on what other cities have done and their successes.
I am not sure which are official, and I do not think any are top 5 (the do not compare to the Vegas Strip, Beale Street, Bourbon Street or Lower Broadway in Nashville. In St. Louis we have:
Washington Ave loft district
Ballpark Village
Soulard
The Grove
Grand South Grand
Grand Center
Cherokee Street
The Central West End
The Delmar Loop
San Francisco - North Beach
Seattle - Capitol Hill
Portland - Pearl District
Los Angeles - Santa Monica/3rd Street
Vancouver - Granville St.
New Orleans - French Quarter
Nashville - Broadway
New York - Times Square
The Strip - Las Vegas
Austin - 6th Street
Avenue of the Arts in Philadelphia definitely makes the list.
Philadelphia has more performing art venues than any city outside NY.
Pardon my quibble here, but I think this is like saying that Lincoln Center in New York is an entertainment district.
The Avenue of the Arts is our high-culture performing-arts epicenter, true. It's home to one of our two Broadway theaters (the other is near the Gayborhood's northeast corner), our symphony hall, opera house, small concert hall/theater/experimental venue, and the theaters that house two of the city's best and best-known theater companies, plus there's the home of the Philadelphia Film Society just off it.
But it seems to me that it lacks a key element the other entertainment districts that have been mentioned here have, namely, places where people just drop in to drink, dine, carouse and maybe hear live music of a more popular bent.
Just about all of the restaurants along the Avenue of the Arts are of the "destination dining"/special-occasion variety. There isn't even an analogue to Fergie's Pub or the Happy Rooster along it.
Put another way, I've never heard of anyone going on an Avenue of the Arts pub crawl (or gallery crawl — it has no visual-arts venues at all save for the galleries run by the University of the Arts). You could go on a pub crawl in just about every one of the other districts that have been mentioned here, and on a gallery crawl as well in several of them.
East 4th Street (Gateway District, in general)
The Flats
Market Square (Ohio City)
Tremont
Gordon Square (rising)
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